A demonstration of nature vs. nurture, and the inner struggles that accompany the realization of your presumed child’s unmatched heredity
Ryota Nonomiya and Midori have a sweet young boy by the name of Keita and he is about to attend his first year of private school. They are the picture perfect family, aside from Dad working a bit too hard to provide his loved ones with an exceptional lifestyle. One afternoon Midori gets a call from the hospital with a troubling discovery, Keita is not theirs as he was switched at birth. When the hospital sets up a meeting with the families that have been fostering the others true kin, they must deal with the choice of keeping the child they have cherished for years or progress their bloodline.
After building a name for himself and wanting to leave behind a legacy, Ryota has a more bullheaded approach to this situation. When circumstances of past failures of Keita are revisited he blames the genes as the obvious flaw, which inevitably only pushes him farther away from embracing Keita as his own. He also seems to cling to his fathers’ horse breeding mentality of bloodline being everything, which coldly dismisses any real feelings for the child he helped raise to the side.
With the foundation of the film built around unsettling components, the screenplay was surprisingly lighthearted as a whole, with the exception of a few heart-wrenching scenes. This was partially achieved by the innocence and playfulness conveyed through the child actors, but mainly by the supporting casts caring environment and parenting from the less privileged side of the fence. This dynamic not only highlighted the obvious social gap, but also gave the perspective of how life without tangible luxuries should still be identified as a prosperous life and merit a happy childhood. This realization being the supplement to the overall message of child rearing, and the effect it has on identity creation through alternate disciplines and family ideals.